Identical
by YellowFlower296
Summary: The final months of training lurk closer for Aang when he gets a message from avatar Roku. One more element, one more skill to master and one more person to meet. New character, kataraXaang, please read and revieiw! I'M NOT WRITING ANOTHER CHAPTER UNTILL
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Hello peeps! This is my First Fan fiction story thingy for Avatar: The Last Airbender. I've been thinking of this story for quite some time and now that I finally have a place to write it, I can wait to start. I hope you guys all enjoy it. The best thing with Avatar is that as the show goes on, it gets better and better. With the occasional crappy episode that pops up rarely…but those don't happen very often on this show.

Just a heads up on a little of what going on in this fic…

Of coarse, this is an Aang/Katara fic. I know it displeases some people but hey, If you don't like it start your own fic. Starting to E-mail me about your displeasure won't help either. My mind is made up already.

There is a new character.

This fic comes with everything you read here and is part of this complete website, The original Mai, That one girl who flips and likes poking people, and Toph not included…. Ok I'm still making my mind up about it, don't rush me…

As for spelling mistakes, don't be a butt. Nobody likes getting "that 'where' should be 'were' don't you have spell check?" I am a speedy typist. I don't look at my hands but type sentences I read off in my head. Nobody likes butts.

Oh wait, "I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender and all the crap that comes with it including characters and …. I can't think of anything else….Anyway…All that stuff that I just mentioned is property of nickalodeon (sp?) or Viacom or whoever owns it... not me…and uh…yeah : )"

Before I start, I just wanted to share something extraordinary with you. As you have probably heard on the news, Israel is attacking Lebanon. In early June, we arrived in Lebanon to see my grandparents. A while before the attacks started, My two-year-old brother began singing 'London Bridge is Falling Down' over and over and we couldn't get him to stop. He sang it all day every day. After three days of singing it, Israel began bombing and five major bridges were destroyed. This is very creepy beyond all reason. I think because babies and toddlers are so little and can't talk right; God lets them in on secrets and sometimes they let them out. I hope that didn't creep you out too much.

Anyways…Happy Reading!

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**Chapter One**

Aang shuddered. It was a clear night and the only remains of the hot fog that haunted the air previously was the dew that now beaded the leaves. The night was cool, the skies were clear and the moon floated in the sky and the stars appeared in ripples across the sky. This was starting to happen a lot, the third time this week. It would be the perfect night to sleep under the stars when he'd wake up. He wouldn't gradually float away from dreamland and eventually open up to the day the way he did in the morning. His awakening was anything but gradual. It was like his body was trying to warn his about something. Like it was telling him to 'get up and expect danger' or 'stay on your toes'.

Regardless of what it could be from, Aang couldn't live on like this. Three nights in a row with no sleep could really take its toll on a person. He was drowsy all day and his eyes shut by themselves. They would shut at the worst times, like when he had to be paying attention, when he was steering Appa or walking into a new village where there could be bandits trying to capture him.

He got up and stretched. He wouldn't be back to bed in a while so he decided to take a walk, explore the place they were camping out for the night. He weaved in between trees and made his way to a stream with tiny waterfalls that fell stilly. One of the trees caught his eye though. It wasn't really a tree, but a stone statue of a striped winged cat. To a normal person, it would've looked like an ordinary statue, but to him it glowed with life. Its whole body was poised and seemed to stare deep into the onlooker's thoughts. What really took Aang over was the cat's eyes. It looked like they were made out of jasper stones and they looked depthless, like looking at water in the ocean but with a cloudier creamier sensation. Aang lost himself in the cat's eyes. They seemed to take him far away and he felt himself rip in half. Suddenly he felt himself leaving the crowd of his physical body as he crept out of his body and felt the cool airy sensation fly through his spiritual self. Aang was in the spirit world.

Avatar Roku and Aang flew through the air on the dragon's back.

"I see you've mastered three of the four elements. I'm very pleased. But there is still something very important you need to know, Aang." Aang shifted in his seat.

"As you know, on the day of the solar eclipse, you will be fighting the fire lord, Ozai. You will need the skills of all four elements to defeat him combined with one other skill. "

"What skill is that?" Aang asked. Roku thought for a moment then looked back up at Aang.

"I think you would understand it better if I told you the story from the beginning. Many years ago, there was a family of scholars. They were known throughout all four nations for their wisdom and extensive knowledge of bending, fighting techniques but most importantly, the human body in relation to bending. This family was very secretive and few things are known about the secrets in their fighting techniques. What people did notice however were their eyes. In most people in their village, the color of everyone's eyes were darkly colored. In their family however, their eyes are a different color. Difficult to describe but what most people depict as jade. Which is the symbol and the last name of this family. Their last name is Yu, or 'jade'"

"Ok…well that's great and all but what does that have anything to do with me or this...'New skill'"

"After many years, their land expanded and they got more and more secretive. Their family grew and grew until only the main trunk of their family tree could remain living in their large estate. They were very wealthy and could've expanded their land to fit the rest of the branches, but they decided to spread their clan to all parts of the Earth Kingdom. Soon their blood became too mixed and only members of the main trunk of their family had the remaining pure blood that hadn't mixed with any other family. Soon though, a large number of members from the trunk were killed in Fire Nation raids and only a few survived. Only a few are alive today. There was one other branch of the Yu family that remained pure besides the main family. They are here in the earth kingdom and you must find them. "Roku paused. Aang still looked up at him confused.

"But Avatar Roku, why do I need to find them? Do they have the skill I need to learn? How?"

"No one besides the Avatar knows that the secret of the Yu family is the skill they possess. Please allow me to finish. The secret of their family was their unique fighting style that came from seeing into the soul of their opponents. This skill is necessary to the Avatar. The Avatar needs to see past deception and look hard to find his enemy's weakness. Their style confuses the enemy and hurts him on the inside rather than trying to burn or drown them as bending usually does. This brings down the opponent with deathly results in the end."

"Oh…I see. So they weaken their opponent from the inside so their bending is effected and they can't fight effectively…but where am I supposed to find this family?"

"Sadly, the whole family doesn't possess this skill. Only one person in this branch possesses it. They live around this same area. You will find them." Roku's dragon swooped down back toward the statue as he started to fade.

"But wait! How do I find them! How will I know!"

Time was standing still. The entire world had been reduced to the surface of Appa's back. Traveling for three days in a row had defiantly taken its toll on Aang, Katara and Sokka. Their supplies were starting to run out and they needed to land somewhere soon. Aang hadn't told them about his venture to the spirit world and was still wondering if he should.

"Ugh! Where does that map say we are, Aang?" Sokka asked.

"Hmm… It says… We're somewhere about twenty miles from Ba Sing Sei. We're getting pretty close to the rest stop we planned on staying in." Sokka rolled is eyes.

"At this rate we're never going to get there. Can't we just land here?"

"Well…I guess we could. I don't think we should though. We haven't seen those bandits for a while and I think we're going to run in to them soon."

"Well if we're all dying of hunger, we're not going to be able to fight them anyway. We might as well just land here. I already see a little village down there, there's no way they could be looking for us down there." Aang looked down and paused for a moment before turning to Katara.

"What do you think? Should we land?"

"I'm going to have to side with Sokka on this one. We have no drinking water, barely any food, and I'm sure Appa is tired." Appa groaned.

"Well…Ok. I guess it wouldn't hurt. Yip Yip!" They soared down to a small clearing in the trees, quickly feeling the air get warmer and moister until they were walking in a huge thick foggy mist. It was the end of June and the sun was a mass of heat that burned right through the sky. They stretched out and began walking through the village as the village people talked in whispers about the avatar and that talk of his return was true after all.

They came to a small market place filled with stalls and people talking and laughing. Katara pulled out the money they had gotten from the resistance in Omashu. They quickly visited each stall and soon they had restocked their supplies. Aang felt nervous though. He felt the bandits were there and they were just waiting for the right minute to make an ambush. Sokka was at a fruit stand and Katara was talking to an old herb seller woman. He made his way to her stand and Katara introduced him.

"Oh, This is my friend, Aang. Aang this is Mrs. Ying."

"Very nice to meet you avatar." Her voice sounded old and raspy as if it had never been used before,

"As I was saying, this the village of Hyuga. It's mostly made out of mixed families, you know, fire nation families and people from the water tribe. They came from other places but they've learned to call this place home even if it's in the earth kingdom." Aang felt the pressure in his chest rise to tell Katara what had happened last night. The feeling that they were going to be attacked grew more and more urgent until he felt too tense to bear it anymore.

"Katara…. can I talk to you for a-"

"Just a second Aang, Mrs. Ying is showing me a dragon snap root. It's supposed to cure burns and poison from plants…" She chattered on.

"It's really important…"

"Wow! Does it really cure Cat's fever?" She wasn't paying attention. He had to say something to get her attention.

"Katara I don't think we're safe here! -" She turned to him. He felt relief but it was short lived.

"What? What are you talking about Aang?" She looked at his face. His eyes were full of worry and he looked awfully nervous. "Mrs. Ying, I'll be back in a second." They walked back to Appa.

"Ah. Now what was it Aang?"

"I- well last night-Agh! Katara look out!" Two men sprung out of the bushes, one grabbed Katara and the other went for Aang. They were both obviously bandits. They were both wearing masks and only their eyes and nose were visible. They wore wrapped linen around their arms and the rest of their clothing was brown and green. The man holding Katara had a rolled piece of parchment in his pocket. A section of it was ripped and it hung open. There was a picture of Aang; it was a 'wanted' notice.

He had to act fast, and the first thing he had to do was to free Katara. He threw a blast of wind in the direction of the second bandit. He slid backwards and slammed into an empty stall. Aang ran towards the first bandit holding Katara. He threw another blast at that one only this time it was filled with dust. The bandit fell to the ground, still hanging on to the back of Katara's robe. Dust and sand flew into the air making it even harder to see and breath combined with the misty fog. She opened her water canteen and froze the bandit's arms and ankles to the ground. The second bandit rose to his feet from under the broken wood and reached into a sack tied to his left side. Out from it he pulled out a giant blade.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note**: I hope you all liked chapter one! Sorry I've changed the order so much but hopefully this is the final product.

**WARNING:** This is not a Zuko/whoever fic. As far as this fic goes, Zuko has nobody to love and no one to love him

Happy Reading: D

Oh wait, "I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender and all the crap that comes with it including characters and …. I can't think of anything else….Anyway…All that stuff that I just mentioned is property of nickalodeon (sp?) or Viacom or whoever owns it... not me…and uh…yeah : )"

"HOWEVER—Jing-Mei is my original creation and if you take her or use her without my permission, you will not have anymore sunny days where things are all A-Ok and you will have to move to Sesame Street (123). Where you will be mauled viciously by my orchestra director, Mrs. Hankins." Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….ha.

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**Chapter Two**

I still remember the day the dark-faced strangers had come to my house. It was a dark night and the only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the small frogs that croaked by the pond. There was a loud knock on the door. My father opened the front door. I stayed behind the paper door wall in the next room. I could see the silhouettes of two people.

One was a man, old with age, a round stomach, and gray hair. The other looked to young to be his son but didn't show enough resemblance to be his grandson either. They both wore straw hats that cast dark shadows on their faces. There was something about the second one though. My mother got worried naturally as she always did and I could see she felt these men were 'dangerous'. They sat down on the couches of the guest room one room away from mine and mother went to get them tea and food. The second one left outside on the balcony and stared at the sky. I stayed out of sight but kept watching him.

I didn't feel they were dangerous though. But the second one. There was something about him…something. He seemed different from other fire benders. He had great skills; I could see that, I could sense it. But he had something fire benders lacked: emotion. When people look at fire benders, the most you can see is their anger, their will to kill. Some don't even have either of the two but people's hate drives them to see things that aren't there. I didn't have this hate. I looked and saw what was inside of people. I saw them in their true state and what they were trying to hide. Then I close my eyes and I see inside him. I could see what was there, buried where it could be lost. I see his woes, his anger. I see fire, rage. Then I see something else. I see a face. It is a woman. She is still young but her face is etched with fine lines like the ones on the surface of a pond frozen with the bitter winds of winter. She is tired and anxious and she has lost something very dear to her. She has left it behind.

I listened to The old man talk to my father and mother as his 'grandson' sat next to him silently. He used kind words and thanked my mother for the tea. I listened to him talk while his 'grandson' occasionally spoke to cover the old man's mistakes. I could sense most of their emotions but there were still many that I couldn't read. I said good night to the strangers and my family and went inside my room. Of course I didn't go to sleep with two strangers one wall over. I listened closely to every sound they made. From only five minutes of their conversation, I learned a lot. Their names were Iroh and Zuko and they were from the fire nation. After that I knew the rest of their story from the posters and gossiping all the village women did. I knew they weren't staying until morning.

As usual, I didn't sleep that night and when they got up to leave, I went out to the balcony and watched them walk out the front door from which they had came. Zuko felt my gaze and turned. My eyes met his and he left.

Jing-Mei woke up. It was still dark outside and luckily; all her siblings were still asleep. She rubbed her eyes and yawned and walked over to the bathhouse. As usual, the bowl filled with face washing water was emptied, probably the works of Lee, the youngest boy in their family, or the most spoiled rotten. She examined her face in the mirror. She had pale white opal skin and large Arabian eyes 'auntie gave you' in the words of Ming, the youngest of all her siblings. Her hair was as black as the ink her father sold at their ink shop. It was long, wavy and all different lengths and it seemed to tumble down her back. She slipped on her ivory robes and tied them with the silky orange waistcloth her father bought her from Ba Sing Sei on a business trip. Her eyes were still tired from waking up so early. They were the color of the pond water with a milkier sentiment, like jade.

She walked over to the small pond behind their house, glancing at its tiny red bridge and painted bars. She sat on her favorite rock and began watching the koi fish swim back and forth. She wondered if they felt the same pain she had often felt, that she was trapped and was good as dead if she tried to escape. She picked one to watch. This koi had bright scarlet scales and fins so white they were transparent. He swam to the edge of the pond, then to the bottom, then to the other edge, then back. She wondered if he remembered were he'd been and if he knew he was swimming in circles. She felt like the koi fish swimming in a circle, repeating each day over and over again. Only she was aware of it.

What did make this day separate from all the rest? Well that was simple. Today was her birthday. Today she would be fifteen and she could have felt a lot happier. She was supposed to be happy today, welcoming another year and getting another year closer to maturity and being right and proper and graceful. She was "stubborn with a hard head but quiet and peaceful at the same time" as she had heard her mother brag to the other gossipy village women in conversation. She had felt this way lately, depressed and dead. She was alive on the outside. Her eyes were open and of coarse she was breathing. On the inside though, she was dead. Her life was a play that played over and over, rewinding itself just as each scene ended. All the air she inhaled was still and suffocating. She wanted more than ever to leave. It wasn't a 'want' anymore, it was a need. Her father had taught her about things like these and many others when she was a little girl. He had taught her about how little things like wants could grow more and more urgent until they were essential. He taught her not to change for anyone and to remain her own spirit, even if it meant giving up something important. He had taught her so many things in that she had spent so much of her childhood in his lap.

Soon enough the day would start, and again she would be stuck in the constant noise leaking from every wall in her house. Five siblings would make anyone crazy and she sometimes wondered how she kept her head from exploding. She remembered how she used to imagine this happening when she was younger. She would be surrounded by noise and screaming and yelling. Then she would cover her ears but the sounds would only get louder until her head would explode like a winter melon hitting the hot brick kitchen floor. Other times it was just loneliness that made her head that winter melon getting ready to welcome it's fate on the hot brick floor. She did have her older sister, Lynn. She and Lynn had been very close. Since they were little they were always attached at the hip. They agreed on most things and liked the same animals, did the same activities, and their mother bought them the same matching robes, obsessed with her first two children. However, Lynn and Jing-Mei were very, very different.

Since their firebending training, her parents began noticing some of their differences. As Lynn had easily mastered many of the beginning techniques, Jing-Mei had to practice more and more to catch up. She struggled often and got frustrated. She needed more encouragement, as she tended to quit many times. On the outside it looked like it didn't matter to her and she had better things to worry about. But she was hurting inside, very, very badly. Just when it seemed that she was getting somewhere and she began to get better, she would look up only to find that she was a thousand years behind. She felt her insides hollow and she felt her heart harden. She felt that if she could travel inside herself to the middle of her chest, where her heart should be was a cold frozen lump. Only the warm glow of pride could bring back to life. It wasn't long after that that her will to live was smoldered. The tiny flame of hope that had once burned strongly in her chest was blown out by the chill of failure.

But she remembered now as she looked out into the shallow waters of the pond what the final blow that killed the relationship between her and her sister for good. She tried not to think about it too often and she quickly caught herself and stopped the thought from rearing its ugly head. She shoved it away and buried it in the old layers of her memory. She could hear that her family was awake and the sounds began to shape the morning.

It was an extremely hot and foggy morning and the village was busy. The merchants were shouting out at passers by coaxing them to a 'good bargain', the fish seller stood busy at his stall filled with ice and shellfish and trout, skinning over the fish's scales with his huge knife as they flew into the air like shards of glass. Then nearest according to her hearing was the old herb seller lady, Mrs. Ying yelling at the children for playing to close to her stall. She rose to her feet and walked towards the front gate to go inside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note**: To My sister/''manager'', SilvrImage, AvatarianSweetPea, FrozenHeat, Nori12, and Guardiangirl1, thanks a bunch for the reviews. I get lazy sometimes and I guess it just takes some reviews for a little encouragement.

This is when the stories going to pick up a little. Remember, If you have any suggestions (rather than just being a butt in an annoying way) Please e-mail me at **ONCE AGAIN** do not try to get me to change what I'm about to write. And please don't beg and say, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make ………. happen it would be such an awesome twist! Please-" **NO**. That's not the way things work. That just gets the writer to hate you because you don't think the story is good enough the way it is.

Happy reading .

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**Chapter Three**

Jing-Mei inhaled. It was enough that it was over ninety degrees out and the fog was enough to give anyone respatory failure, but she didn't feel hot at all. She could never hate anything more than cold weather. The air was dry and deadly when it stung the throat and lungs. That was when she thought she was going to choke. Not to mention all the times she'd woke up at night to find her mouth tasted like blood from all the dryness in the air.

She walked up the side of their tired house then up to the front. Then up the walk, then climb the first stair, then the next, then the next. She reached for the knob. BOOM. She felt the earth shake. A huge cloud of dust flew into the air not to far away from the market place. She stared off into the distance and through the dust, concentrating all her spiritual energy on trying to find where the blast was coming from. There. She saw two bandits, a girl with braided hair, and….something-someone else. She tried concentrating her eyes more until... "AUGH!" Her hands flew to her face.

Aang looked at Katara who was wearing the same terrorized express he was. The bandit stood tall with a huge blade as big as MoMo and almost twice as wide. He had to think fast. What was he going to do? If he threw any more windblasts, he was sure wasn't going to be able to breath anymore, nonetheless run back to where Appa was. As long as the air was as thick as it was, he was powerless without his bending. _That's it! Sokka!_ Sokka hadn't been with them even before the fight. He hadn't even taken a single blow. He needed to get Sokka's attention, it was clear he and Katara couldn't win this fight alone.

"Sokka! We need help!" Aang shouted. Surprisingly, Sokka wasn't as far away as he'd thought. Even if Sokka didn't knock the bandit out, he could still be a distraction long enough for them to get Appa to get them away from this mess.

"Aang! I'm right here, where are you!" All Sokka could see was the dark outline of the bandit.

"Don't worry about us, get the bandit!"

Sokka ran towards the bandit. He reached into his side and grabbed his machete, swinging it towards the bandit's shoulder. The bandit blocked his blow with the blade and stepped backwards. It was like fighting underwater. Each breath only made it worse. All he had to do was keep fighting the bandit off until he fainted. That would give them time to get to Appa. But the air was worse than he thought. The heat had everyone loosing enough fluids and the fog made it so they couldn't breath. Neither them nor the bandits would win this fight. But why was the bandit so steady? What was keeping him from fainting or at least wheezing? He stared hard then found his answer. The bandit's face was covered by a mask. Each time he inhaled, all the moisture and dust stuck to the surface of the mask and only oxygen made it through to his face. He had to do the same. He un-did the sash from his waist and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. It didn't help a lot but it was much better that breathing in the foul air directly.

His thoughts took him back to the bandit in front of him. He knew how the bandit was still standing; now he had to figure out how to knock him down. His mind raced looking at all the possible answers to his question. Then he remembered his training at Kioshi Island. To use his opponents' strength against them. He thought about the huge blade the bandit had. Without it, there wasn't much to fear about him. That was his answer: he had to take his blade away. Cornered three to one, the bandit would see he was outnumbered and stop trying. Now there was just the matter of doing it. If he attacked directly, the bandit would still have the blade in his hand. He had an idea.

He ran up to the bandit and swung his machete at him. The bandit blocked it again. Sokka then let out a groan of pain, and got down on the floor. Sokka got up and ran backwards where he was out of sight, keeping in mind where the bandit was standing. He then inched closer to the bandit, step by step. He turned his gaze towards his sister and Aang. He signaled them and then made a circling motion with his arms. They each stood at a different position around the bandit but still out of sight and hidden in the fog. Sokka ran up behind the bandit and swung the blade out of his hands in one swift motion. Aang and Katara then can in closer to where the bandit could see them and the fact that he was outnumbered. They could taste victory now. The sun was starting to advance past its position in the middle of the sky and was sinking lower and lower. It got a little bit easier to breath as the fog was starting to subside. At this point, the bandit should've been as terrified as they had been. But on his face instead was an evil grin.


End file.
